


Last Night

by raininshadows



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 11:19:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9069286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raininshadows/pseuds/raininshadows
Summary: Adam and Lilith look for Agatha's locket.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gisho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gisho/gifts).



> Happy holidays! I hope you like the fic! I liked getting to work with your prompts.

“Eleven years!” Lilith muttered on her way out of the shop. Adam shrugged. They’d realized that Barry Heterodyne was taking longer than anticipated a while back, but the best thing to do had seemed to be to keep on taking care of Agatha as best they could and wait for him to come back. They’d put together a decent life in Beetleburg, with the machine shop and the canning.

Agatha had warned them about the curfew, and Klaus did seem to be trying to make sure the citizens knew what was happening. Their first step onto the street was greeted by a clank in Wulfenbach livery pointing a gun at them. “HALT,” it declared. “ALL CITIZENS ARE TO STAY OFF THE STREET UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.”

“Our apologies, Herr Clank,” Lilith said, stepping back inside. 

Agatha had gone up to her room to pack, so she didn’t notice Adam and Lilith ducking out a second-floor window onto the neighbors’ roof. Neither did the clanks. While Adam and Lilith had seen a great many surprisingly intelligent clanks in their time, they weren’t generally mass-produced guard clanks like the Wulfenbach Empire used. 

The curfew turned out to be mostly limited to the area around the university. The profusion of clanks and Jägermonsters patrolling the streets had done a lot to get people inside without one. A lot of shops were closed or severely lacking in customers. 

“Have you seen a locket with a trilobite design on it, brought in by a soldier or two?” Lilith asked the pawn shop owner. 

He shrugged. “Can’t say as I remember seeing one, but we get lots of necklaces in. You’re welcome to check out the jewelry.” 

“Thank you,” she said. Adam had been perusing it already, and looked up and shook his head. 

“Why that specifically, if you don’t mind my asking?” the pawn shop owner asked. 

Lilith smiled awkwardly. “A necklace matching that description was stolen from our daughter this morning, by two soldiers. We’re hoping to find it.” 

“Ah,” he said. “Well, good luck. Sorry I couldn’t help you.” 

Beetleburg’s pawn shops tended to be overstocked with random trinkets that had come from university students looking to get more money or unload non-explosively failed experiments. A locket with a trilobite on it was a fairly common design for jewelry, and Adam and Lilith had seen dozens upon dozens by the time night fell, none of them Agatha’s. The jewelers were similarly afflicted. Many of the stores were closed; Lilith had always been the better lock picker, so she slipped into those while Adam stood guard outside. None of them had it, either.

Master Wulpin, the small man who ran the Thieves’ Market, was fortunately just as on top of his game as ever. “Trilobite locket? A few, yes. This morning, you said?”

Lilith nodded. “It belongs to our daughter. She said two soldiers took it. It’s the last thing she has from her late parents.” 

“You’ll want to be speaking to Remus, then,” Master Wulpin said. He sounded somewhat sympathetic. “He took a necklace that sounds like that from one of Wulfenbach’s men this afternoon. It wasn’t taken by one of us, I can tell you that. It’s harder to get people to relax around soldiers, and it’s so easy for a mugging to go wrong.” 

Adam and Lilith looked at each other and shrugged. _It’s unlikely he has it_ , Adam signed. 

“But possible,” Lilith said quietly. She looked back at Master Wulpin. “Where can we find Remus?” 

He pointed them towards where a man in a dull gray jacket was picking at his nails, looking for all the world like he was simply bored and waiting for someone. “Good evening,” Lilith said calmly as she stood next to him. 

“Good evening, ma’am,” Remus said. “Anything I can do for you?”

Lilith glanced around, confirming that no one who looked like law enforcement was nearby. “I’m looking for a necklace.” 

“Mm,” Remus said. “What kind of necklace?”

“A locket, with a trilobite design. Taken from a soldier.” 

He passed it to her surreptitiously. Under the dim light, it was quite obviously not Agatha’s. “No,” Lilith said quietly. “Not the one I’m looking for. But thank you.” 

Nobody had Agatha’s locket, and the only commonality they could find in asking about the thieves was that it was extremely unlikely they were professionals. Adam and Lilith were heading back to the shop, Lilith ranting at Adam, when they heard a distant sound of loud thudding. Adam noticed it first, and pulled Lilith out of the way. 

Herr Ketter’s tractor, missing several parts that should have been vital to its motion and having obtained several appendages that it hadn’t had that morning, shot past them, followed by Baron Wulfenbach, his son, a few Jägermonsters, and a number of large clanks. 

“Agatha!” Lilith blurted out, and broke into a run. Adam moved ahead of her quickly. 

When they got there, a pale blue Jäger was leaning against the doorframe, examining the street, which was still empty. There was no evidence that anyone was inside Clay Mechanical. 

Lilith noticed him before he noticed them, fortunately. He did seem to be able to tell something was there, though - he sniffed the air, an odd expression on his face, and stepped out into the street to get a better look in either direction. 

“It’s Werther,” Lilith said quietly, lingering out of sight where that street crossed another. Both of them were almost clear of pedestrians. “I remember him.”

Adam nodded. _Calm for a Jäger_ , he signed. That wasn’t particularly saying much, but it was something. 

“What do we do?” Lilith whispered. “Do we just go talk to him?”

_He might know where Agatha is_ , Adam signed. _It doesn’t look like she’s in there._

It didn’t. The door was wide open, though they’d been closed when Adam and Lilith left, and the presence of a Jäger meant that Wulfenbach and his soldiers had already been there. He’d probably already taken Agatha. 

“She’s with Wulfenbach, probably,” Lilith said. “We don’t need to let him know we’re alive to find that much out.” 

_But Werther might know why._ Adam and Lilith were starting to attract attention now from the occasional passersby. Lilith sighed. 

“All right,” she said quietly. “Let’s go.” 

Werther looked up as they moved into his field of view. His eyes widened. “It is you,” he whispered in the distinctive Mechanicsburg accent they hadn’t heard in years. “I thought I smelled you, but I wasn’t sure.” 

Lilith smiled awkwardly. “Yes.”

He looked up at the sign and seemed to mentally connect the dots. “You’re the Clays, aren’t you?” 

Adam nodded. Werther stepped inside, beckoning them to follow. The shop floor was covered in miscellaneous metal scraps. Several recognizable pieces from Herr Ketter’s tractor, which looked like someone had tried to blast it with a cannon, were lying there, still smoking gently. 

“Wulfenbach wants to talk to the owners of the shop as soon as possible,” Werther said, apparently by way of an explanation. “He didn’t know that was you, though.” 

“Werther, we can’t talk to him,” Lilith said. “Master Barry was firm about this. He didn’t want us or Agatha ever getting near Klaus again. You said he took her?” 

Werther nodded. “His son left with her and her boyfriend a while ago. He thinks she’s a Spark.”

“Boyfriend?” Lilith whispered, and then realized Agatha having a secret boyfriend was a fairly minor problem right now, in perspective. “She is a Spark, she has to be. Werther, can you just… tell Klaus you couldn’t find us? We’re going to go after Agatha, but he doesn’t know we’re alive and we need to keep it that way.” He seemed to be considering the idea. “It’s what Master Barry asked us to do,” she added, although she knew it was a low blow.

Werther stared down at the floor. “I can only get you a few days,” he said finally, looking up. “He’ll start looking after that.” 

“That’s enough,” Lilith said. “Thank you, Werther.” 

They stepped out into Beetleburg with the last of their worldly belongings, ready to go find their daughter.


End file.
